Tag Archives: Barton

Post navigation

When we last spoke Jon had said that he wanted to fly round the world in his CTSW microlight. As part of the build up to doing just that, Jon told me that he wanted to fly his CT microlight to Canada and back.

Jon set off in May of 2013 and, as he was planning to go via the northern route, he had to prepare the aeroplane to cope with the cold weather. He had G-CGIZ serviced and modified slightly to cope with the conditions. It is worth noting though that the CTSW microlight is definitely not suited to Arctic flight.

Jon Hilton is an adventurous microlight pilot, currently flying a CTSW out of Barton Airport, Manchester. Having read a couple of Jon’s reports in the BMAA’s monthly magazine he sounded like a prime candidate to appear on the Podcast.

Today’s Flying Podcast finds me sat on the deck outside of Melvin’s Cafe at Barton Aerodrome.
It was a typically beautiful Spring evening in Manchester, the sun was just beginning to set and the Goodyear Blimp was about to depart. They were off to film a football match from overhead for Sky TV at the Etihad Stadium.
I took the opportunity to grab a few minutes with Chief Pilot Mark Finney before he saw the airship off on its flight.
Although it started out as a quiet night it soon got noisy with the police helicopter arriving and then, believe it or not, an Army Apache helicopter too which never happens at Barton.

This podcast came about as a result of a conversation between myself and a fellow Barton aviator, Duncan Armstrong.
We were chatting about our flying experiences and I happened to mention that I’d kept a diary of how my flight training was progressing. As I’m a firm believer in learning from my mistakes I thought that a log of what happened and when, during my time in the left seat, would come in handy as my time as a pilot progressed.

Today I’m visiting my old stomping ground of Barton Aerodrome to talk to one of the guys in the control tower. The chap that’s featuring on the podcast is Mark Knowles and if you’ve ever landed or taken off from Barton chances are you will have spoken to Mark at some point.

The first thing I asked Mark to do was to tell me about Barton, or City Airport, Manchester as it’s often called, and to tell me the type of air traffic control it has.

Mark started by describing the aerodrome. It’s a grass airfield near to Manchester with 8 runways and they operate a Flight Information Service under the title Barton Information.

For episode 31 of Flying Podcast I’m talking Martin Hatton. Martin spends much of his time training flying instructors for Ravenair, based at Liverpool Airport and City Airport, Manchester. I was interested to find out what it takes to become a flying instructor and what is involved in getting a flying instructor rating.

My first question was `Why do people become flying instructors?’.
Martin replied that it’s mainly to build hours for a commercial career but there are people who actually have other jobs and wish to instruct in their spare time, or, like Martin, they just want to be a flying instructor. There is the added advantage that you get to fly for free and get paid for it.

This episode of Flying Podcast features an interview with Claire Hatton, a Commercial and Instrument Rating Instructor with Ravenair, based mainly at Liverpool, John Lennon Airport. We discuss what’s involved in more advanced ratings and licenses such as the IMC, Multi engine, IR and CPL. So if you have any interest in improving your flying or want to get into commercial aviation, have a listen to what Claire has to say.

Gary Cooper of Helicopters Northwest explains about helicopter training giving a brief outline of the syllabus, post PPL(H) training options and the sort of problems you can encounter whilst learning to fly.

I spent a few hours with Joel Tobias, owner of a Bell 206 BIII Jet Ranger. In this podcast interview he gives us some background to his flying career, his aircraft and how he uses it for business and pleasure.

A chat with Sgt. Mick Dunn from Greater Manchester Police’s Air Support Unit.
The Air Support Unit operates the Police helicopter from City Airport, Manchester.
The interview covers such areas as the aircraft used, the technologies they carry onboard, their operational usage and the career path towards getting into the pilot’s or the air observer’s seat.